VacationSelector
The towers of Panama City reflected in the bay in golden light, Panama City
Panama CityThe towers of Panama City reflected in the bay in golden light
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Salvador?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Panama City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Panama City’s own page.

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Panama City 44, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Salvador 52: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Salvador 42: Panama City leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Salvador 42: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Salvador.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and shopping with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Panama City in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
161 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySalvador

Where the figures come from

Panama City has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySalvador
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation20 m8 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySalvador
City population1,540,0002,417,678
People per km²5,6003,489
Museums within 10 km1049
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Salvador somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.